Ryoga's Heated Battle
by Tindercrest
Summary: How far will Ryoga give up for the sake of resolving his inner conflict in his heart concerning Akane? (set before he met Akari)
1. Reflections

> **DISCLAIMER**: I do NOT own Ranma 1/2 series, Rumiko Takahashi and Viz comics do and I wish they could give me the one I lost...((sob)) Anyway, ((returns to Chibi Lee-kun)) form the names that appear here are superficial; any similarities blah, blah, blah...
> 
> **LEGEND**:  
/thoughts/  
"quotes"  
Chibi Lee-kun's comments  
((actions))
> 
> As usual, Hibiki Ryoga, the Eternally Lost Boy, was wandering into some unknown and uninhabitable places in Japan. Forever searching for his destination, Ryoga manages to set up camp in a mountain forest, unchartered on his own map (if he has one).  
  
Around seventeen years old, Ryoga may not look like someone who can survive on his own in the wild. On the contrary, he had been living alone on his hunted game in his long travels (which, often unintended to be long) with the aid of his power fighting skills. This young man, whose looks suit his quick temper, thrives in the misery of having no girlfriends to like him, and a curse that always wounds his pride. Ryoga fell in the Heituennichuan (by a certain someone who caused his misery), a cursed lake that transforms those who drown in it into a black piglet whenever that person gets splashed by cold water.  
  
/Akane-san. Forgive me for not seeing you in three weeks,/ Ryoga thought while nibbling on a recently-caught rabbit. /I have been trying to attain peace and clarity of mind so that when I see you again, I...I.../  
  
"I can tell you how much I l...lo...lov...love you! Akane-sa---" ((cough)) ((cough)) ((splutter)) ((sigh))  
  
/When will I ever see you again? Akane-san, I've been dreaming of you night and day, and I haven't experienced a time spent not thinking about you after I set my gaze upon your lovely face... Akane-san...you're my sole reason for enduring the burden of my curse. I experienced heaven by your side (or bosom) as your loyal pet, and hell because of that RANMA.../  
  
Ryoga, shaking his fist violently, managed to break a nearby tree like a matchstick and ended up on top of his head.  
  
"Ouch..." he cried while massaging his newly formed lump.  
  
/Akane-san, I'll endure anything for you. Even if I become P-chan for life, I'll do it in exchange for just a hint of your feelings toward me./  
  
His train of thought was interrupted a short while later when he heard a rustle of dried leaves near his camp. Two figures whom Ryoga knew from acquaintance approached him, an old crone less than four feet tall sporting a long, white hair and eyes much larger than his fist, and clutching a weather-beaten staff by the smaller end at the bottom. The other is a girl of his age, owner of a vibrant purple hair; a cute, silken face with a noticeable Chinese descent; wielding a chest plate with intricate Chinese Amazon designs, and dual heavy, rainbow-colored maces on each hand.  
  
"Whoa...I didn't expect Hibiki Ryoga to be around here on Mt. Terror!" exclaimed Cologne, the hundred-or-so-year old Chinese Amazon. Mt. Terror? I thought I'm in Mt. Aso...  
  
"Nihao, Ryoga. Are you also training here by chance?" greeted Shampoo, the WAY younger Amazon. chibi Lee-kun gets bonked on the head by Cologne  
  
Ryoga, without any alibis in his head to counter her query, just nodded in agreement.  
  
"Aiyaa! No matter how hard you train, you cannot defeat my future husband Ranma. Ryoga stupid. Ryoga just likes Akane," Shampoo mocked that came along with a snicker.  
  
"Shut up!"  
  
"I never expected you to return to your training site back then when you were mastering the _Bakusai Tenketsu_. Are you here because you thought this is Mt. Aso or are you lost or something?"  
  
/I swear that old monkey could read minds...A bonk on the head answered his question./  
  
"Stop looking at me like I'm an old witch! Are you lost?"  
  
Ryoga, caressing his two lumps said, "Ye...I mean, NO! I've been training here for a week now in order to defeat Ranma...nyahahaha!"  
  
"Hmm...I wouldn't say that is really your purpose here, since we saw some peculiar things along this path..." the old Amazon quoted.  
  
"Hehe...like what?" he innocently asked with his usual finger-twirling habit of uneasiness. Shampoo went back to the path they came from and reappeared a little while later lifting a huge boulder in her arms. She casually placed it in front of Ryoga who was missed by a few inches. Not that she cared though. It was difficult to notice if he nearly had a heart attack because of Shampoo's near miss or the words "Tendo Akane" written in a cluster of holes on the rock.  
  
"Ryoga likes Tendo Akane, right? Grandma has perfect plan for you."  
  
"Tch. I, Hibiki Ryoga, do not ask for help when I can solve my problem alone. Ranma, you'd better watch out the next time I---"  
  
A sharp blow at the head interrupted Ryoga. Now he has an already deformed skull to thrive his misery with.  
  
"You stubborn fool! Don't you know that you could never defeat my future son-in-law in your lifetime both in fighting and in women?" Cologne scolded. He just managed to utter a "Tch!" and look away after knowing the harsh facts of reality. "Ryoga, why don't we coincide forces, since we have similar goals? Tell you what," she explained as she moved closer to him. "I'll offer you a deal."  
  
"A deal? For what?"  
  
"You get Tendo Akane while Shampoo gets son-in-law. We need your help to concretize our plan. What do you say, Ryoga?"  
  
/Akane-san, will you ever look at me the way you look at Ranma? Will you ever change your feelings towards me more than as a pet? Akane-san...I like you so much, and yet...I don't see the same look in your face that I have towards you.../  
  
"Ryoga, Tendo Akane's much too good for you with Airen around," Shampoo teased.  
  
/If I could just.../  
  
"Ryoga, what do you say?!!"  
  
/Akane-san...for you...if I could.../
> 
> End of Chapter 1
> 
> * * *
> 
> Ryoga (pointing to chibi Lee-kun): Oi.
> 
> chibi Lee-kun: Nani?
> 
> Ryoga (presses finger on top of Lee-kun's head): Explain to me why you have this mania to fracture my head...
> 
> chibi Lee-kun: ...
> 
> Ryoga: And...you did not make me dramatic enough...(clutching Lee-kun's head by a palm)
> 
> chibi Lee-kun: Waaah...it was my very first fic okay? (cries a waterfall) so mean...
> 
> Ryoga: Oh yeah...I want payback for making me a target practice...hehehe...
> 
> (Ryoga continuously pokes chibi Lee-kun on the head while pronouncing _Bakusai Tenketsu_ as fast as he can)
> 
> chibi Lee-kun: Itai...itai...((squeak)) ((squeak)) ((squeak))...see ya'll next time! Itai...


	2. A Second Family

**DISCLAIMER:** Ranma 1/2 doesn't belong to this writer...the stuffed P-chan, giant spatula don't count though... :)

hey, people...I just want you to know that I write these stuff for my self-satisfaction...I just put them here to share...that's all...

**LEGEND:**  
/thoughts/  
"quotes"  
Chibi Lee-kun's comments  
((actions))  
  
Night began to fall as the scene shifts to the Tendo residence. The atmosphere is the typical Japanese setting; the carp in the small fishpond leaping above the surface every now and then, the rustling of the leaves in the surrounding trees, vendors selling their wares and products.  
  
"Teeahh!!!" a young man's voice yelled.  
  
"You foo'! You cannot defeat your master even in a million years! Just try me!" an older tone belonging to a middle-aged man challenged.  
  
"How unfair of you to rob me in my bath! Come back here!"  
  
"Ranma, running away is also a part of your training! You never know when an opponent might use your disadvantage as his strength! Bwahahaha!!!"  
  
/Why that no good.../ "But chasing you while wearing ONLY MY BOXERS?!! Wait, you old man!"  
  
Saotome Ranma and his father, Genma, have been training for a couple of hours already. Their barbaric battle cries pierce the tranquil atmosphere of the neighborhood every now and then, with no one that can stop them from doing so. Ironically, they've been working out at virtually anywhere on the Tendo residence --- except for the training dojo; and as usual, their daily rigors in these "practice sessions" could easily be attributed to silly quarrels that range from hair-restoration formulae, leftover pickles at the table, who will restrain Happosai, and the list goes on.  
  
"Ranma! I'm in dire need of cash! Can't you just overlook this incident for your dear old father?"  
  
"Shut up! What father would..."  
  
((blinks puppy eyes)) "Please?"  
  
"Nyeeah..." ((releases Genma off Ranma's hold)) "Fine! That'll be the last one then. Just don't...make me pose such positions in front of the camera..."  
  
"Thank...you're off guard!" bellowed Genma as he grappled Ranma and threw him to the fishpond. However, a girl no younger than Ranma came out as he/she countered Genma's throw with his/her own.  
  
"To think I actually believed the bull that you were saying a while ago...now I have to take a bath again..."  
  
Both Ranma and Genma are the unlucky persons who were cursed in the Cursed Springs of Jusenkyo Training Grounds in China when they fell in Nyannichuan (Cursed Spring of Drowned Girl) and Shonmaoniichuan (Cursed Spring of Drowned Panda) respectively Chibi Lee-kun: Ryoga fell in Heituennichuan, not Hei-ton-ni-chuan as was written last chapter...bad hand...slap pound Hehe...gomen...  
  
In contrast from the Saotome family training outside, the Tendo family were trying to filter out the noise in vain. Soun was playing shogi with Sasuke, Kuno Tatewaki's ever loyal ninja servant; Kasumi, Soun's eldest daughter, was cooking the night's dinner; and Akane, the youngest in the Tendo family, was breaking hollow blocks with her bare hands in the dojo. The other sibling, Nabiki, was away having in the company of her friends.  
  
Happosai, Soun and Genma's master and originator of the Anything-Goes Martial Arts Style, was watching his daily aerobics program in the evening?!! on TV. Another freeloader in the Tendo residence, it's a wonder why his two pupils devoted themselves to him when he creates pandemonium more often than he helps both families. Happosai, or "Happy" as cologne "affectionately" calls him, has a nasty obsession for ladies' underwear and lingerie, which he acquires illegally on a nightly basis. In addition to his mania, Happy also happens to be "Japan's Most Avaricious Man," as Genma labeled him. So greedy, in fact, those artifacts that are marked as "legendary" or "lost" are just mere commodities in Happosai's own unorthodox antique collection.  
  
It just so happens that a certain person desperately needs one of these artifacts.  
  
Hibiki Ryoga has been traveling around Japan for a month already after meeting with Shampoo and Cologne at Mt. Terror. His mind is entirely focused on what Granny had said back then.

"Ryoga, somewhere in the Tendo residence, a legendary heirloom of mine is hidden."  
  
Who cares?"What kind of heirloom is it?" was Ryoga's terse reply.  
  
"An artifact that allows its user to be transported to any place at any time he wishes at that moment." Ryoga's eyes lit up when the latter part of the statement was mentioned.  
  
"Aiyaa! Grandma, you don't mean..." a genuinely surprised Shampoo asked.  
  
"Yes. My Magic Mirror." ...   
  
Something that could transcend me back through time...at long last...Ranma's defeat is close at hand...plus, I don't have to rely on my sense of direction at all..."Nyahahahah!!! Granny, do you know where it can be found in that house?"  
  
"The last thing I knew was that Happy has it. However..."  
  
That was all Ryoga needed to know as he ran off through the heavily wooded mountain forest and leaving a curt "Thanks" to Cologne and Shampoo. /That's odd, I'm supposed to be in Tokyo already,/ Ryoga wondered for the nth time. /I followed exactly what the map Akane-san gave me and yet.../ "Oh shoot, my umbrella..." he cried as he was soaked by a sudden rain shower. P-chan, a black piglet, emerged from a pile of Ryoga's clothes, novelties, presents for Akane perhaps, and backpack. Then, he ran off in the rain.  
  
P-chan arrived at the Tendo residence as soon as he left amazing, how Ryoga's sense of direction suddenly improves as a pig... . He/It immediately jumped toward Tendo Akane's open arms as his owner also apparently missed his presence.  
  
"P-chan! Where have you been for the past months? I missed you!" ((hug))  
  
"Queak, squeal, queak!" I missed you too, Akane-san, as I trained hard in the mountains to defeat Ranma  
  
"What? You want me to kiss you with a chain on your snout in front of Ranma?"  
  
"Oink, kree, queak, oink, squeal, snort, snort!" No!  
  
"Go? Okay P-chan!" ((kiss with chain in snout in front of Ranma))  
  
Ranma was greatly disturbed by this act (obviously) and he was momentarily out of focus in his training.  
  
"Wha---How could you do THAT to the pig, Akane!"  
  
/sticks out tongue/ "Ba---ka. Ranma, are you jealous over P-chan?" Akane mocked with a smirk on her face.  
"Tch! Who...who would be jealous over a totally UNCUTE tomboy like you?" /sticks out his tongue too/  
  
Ranma managed to dodge an incoming fragment from one of the hollow blocks Akane was breaking apart a while ago.  
  
"Hmph. Thanks for not caring! I'm going to take a bath with P-chan whether you like it or not!"  
  
Both Ranma's and Ryoga's eyes widened at the statement; each with very different reasons for doing so. P-chan was still unconscious from the heavy loss of blood that he didn't notice the switch made between he and a deformed, wrinkled black piglet in Akane's arms.  
  
"P-chan, let's go --- AH!!! Hentai!" Akane screamed while throwing the faux black piglet.  
  
"That's the last time that old geezer will touch back here!" exclaimed Ranma while chasing Happosai around the house. Akane, apparently shocked at what happened, decided not to take a bath for a while. Really, she just wants Ranma to bathe with her.  
  
/Happosai, just you wait...I'll be coming to get that Mirror from you.../

* * *

(A tuft of hair is on the ground. Motoko Aoyama apparently notices it and decides to uproot it out. She let out a stifled shriek as she saw chibi Lee-  
kun)  
  
chibi Lee-kun: Motoko-chan...((faint))  
  
Motoko-chan: ... how...cute...((Hugs chibi Lee-kun and disposes her katana))  
  
chibi Lee-kun: Motoko-chan, where are you taking me?  
  
Motoko-chan: you'll see...you poor widdle thing you...  
  
chibi Lee-kun: ... -faint-  
  
Motoko-chan: chibi Lee-kun is mine! Mine alone! (laughs in a high voice) 


End file.
